Photography was
invented in 1814 and the reason it became such a popular success was because of
it’s accuracy and ability to showcase the world in such a realistic way- a way
that was far more realistic than any professional painter or artist could ever
create. For this reason, photography was well praised and highly regarded for
its capability to reveal reality and truth. However, the history of photo
manipulation dates back to the 1860’s.
I would say that this is a fairly famous picture of Abraham
Lincoln that we've all seen before. This picture is also famous for being known
as the first manipulated photograph. In actuality, Lincoln never posed for this
portrait at all. The body belongs to John Calhoun, and Lincoln’s face is
originally from a portrait taken by Mathew Brady. The history behind why this
manipulation was created is unknown, but the effects this photo has caused are
well… history. Ever since, the ethics of editing photographs have been questioned.
Is editing a face onto a body any different than editing out a few stray hairs
or taking out a blemish? Where does the metaphorical line fall?
There are no hard and set rules to the
boundaries of editing, but it socially acceptable
to consider the line “crossed” when the manipulation was done with intention to
deceive the viewer. Editing a stray hair out of a person’s face is okay because
its still a fair representation of that person’s appearance, whether she had a
fly-away hair or not, she is still the same recognizable person. Editing
someone’s weight however, might make them harder to recognize, and is not an
accurate portrayal of that person’s appearance. Ad companies get busted for editing
their models weights, body structure and appearance all the time, and the
reason their editing is such a problem is because they issue no clause that
their photos were ever edited. They sell us a sub-reality that doesn’t exist.
And the worst part? When we don’t know what we’re given is actually a lie, we
buy right into it. So, here I insert my clause: the following photos have been photoshopped extensively, in fact, they have been
overly-photoshopped to illustrate my point. But, now that
you know their reality, you can make up your own mind…
"Intent to deceive the viewer..."
This is a photo I took back in April of a girl named Courtney.
She has beautiful blonde hair, blue eyes, and a face full of freckles. Don’t
believe me?
I posted this before and after series on my Facebook photography page and tagged Courtney in it. She sent me a personal message the
next day saying that she didn't even recognize herself. When images like this
are edited and flipped around 180 degrees, it’s easy to see how people – girls
in particular, considering the average model is female – have their visions of
beauty distorted. “ I've never seen a model in a magazine with freckles all over
her face, only clear skin must be perfect…” and “Wow, that model has pretty red
hair! I wish I didn't have my boring blonde hair…” How sad would it be if a
girl changed her image to look like a model, if she had only known that in real
life, the model looked exactly like her.
Here is a before/after of a supermodel. Truthfully, I have no clue
who this model is. I found a website with about a dozen models with their
makeup and Photoshop free
pictures next to them, and this was the most dramatic of the bunch. Beside from
the same dead stare and over-sized breasts, the two photos look as if they’re of
different people.
This is Maggie. I took her photo back in September for a family Christmas
card. I also worked with Maggie back in my hometown for several months. If I had
to guess Maggie’s height and weight, I would say she weighed 120 pounds and was
5’7’’. Do you know what 120 and 5’7” looks like?
Looks as if she just gained 30 pounds with one scroll, doesn’t it?
Seeing the after before seeing the before almost makes the before shot look
like Maggie is chubby because the after shot appears to look quite “normal.”
Because of photo editing and model-anorexia (which is kind of a chicken and the
egg concept in and of itself), girls have their self-image skewed and think, “My 135lb
figure is too big, photos only show models who appear to weigh 85lbs.” Little do they know the models are quite often normal sized themselves...
Because of
these skewed images that people are accepting as reality:
-In a survey of girls 9 and 10 years old, 40% have tried to lose weight, according to an ongoing study funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
-A 1996 study found that the amount of time an adolescent watches soaps, movies and music videos is associated with their degree of body dissatisfaction and desire to be thin.
-One study reports that at age thirteen, 53% of American girls are "unhappy with their bodies." This grows to 78% by the time girls reach seventeen.
-One in every three (37%) articles in leading teen girl magazines also included a focus on appearance, and most of the advertisements (50%) used an appeal to beauty to sell their products.
-The commercials aimed at female viewers that ran during the television shows most often watched by teen girls also frequently used beauty as a product appeal (56% of commercials). By comparison, this is true of just 3 percent of television commercials aimed at men.
- “In a study on fifth graders, 10 year old girls and boys told researchers they were dissatisfied with their own bodies after watching a music video by Britney Spears or a clip from the TV show "Friends".”
Now that
you’ve seen the pictures, heard the statistics and been made aware of the
effects of these photos, the next time you see an advertisement with a skinny
body, perfect completion, and heavenly check bones, will that be the reality
that you choose to accept?
vHalbrooks, G. (n.d.). The ethics of magazine photo manipulation . Retrieved from http://media.about.com/od/printmedia/a/The-Ethics-Of-Magazine-Photo-Manipulation.htm
vLodriguss, J. (n.d.). The ethics of digital manipulation.
Retrieved from http://www.astropix.com/HTML/J_DIGIT/ETHICS.HTM
vMcKay, K. (2009, 04 01). Photo
manipulation through history: A timeline. Retrieved from http://ethicsinediting.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/photo-manipulation-through-history-a-timeline/
vTeen
health and the media. (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://depts.washington.edu/thmedia/view.cgi?section=bodyimage&page=fastfacts
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